The Sun. — London, England, 1864-05-23 00:00:00

40,000 in killed, wounded, and missing. General Warren is reported to be killed. Johnston's position at Resaco has been found too REITTER'S TE LEGRAMS. The royal mail ste amshi p Euro p a, from Bostonstrong for attack. on the 11th, and Halifax on the 13th, arrived at Queenstown at 5 p.m. on the 22d inst. She bri• Jga 98 passengers and 42,455 dollars in specie. The Europa landed 128 sacks of mails and seven p as • sengers, and proceeded for Liverpool at 5.14 p.m. ; all well. AMERICA. EVENING. No report has been received of the battle being renewed at Spottsylvania on the 11th: Lee is reported to be in a very strong position, behind earthworks and woods. The occupation of Spottsylvania by Burnside has not been confirmed. The Federal depot for the wounded is at Frede. ricksburg. The Africa, City of Manchester, and North American have arrived out. NET?' Youx, May 1.0 (Evening). Gen. Grant fought two severe battles in Wilder ness on the sth and 6th inst., but no official repor to have as yet been published of these encounters. Secretary Stanton has issued a bulletin stating that the general results might be considered as a su.►ccess COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE. Gold fluctuated yesterday and to-day between 77 and 72 per cent. premium, and closes to-day at a premium of 75 per cent. Exchange on London, 188 to 190. to the Federal arms. The fighting on the 6th was the most desperate that has been known in modern times. A large number of prisoners have been both lost and cap tured. Nearly the whole of the ith Pennsylvania Regiment was taken. Gen. Wadsworth has been Stocks slightly firmer. New York Centrals, 1.311 ; Illinois, 125; Erie, 110; Six per Cent. United States Bonds, 1061. killed. After the battle of the 6th Gen. Lee commenced a retreat during the night by the direct road, and on the 7th Gen. Grant began the pursuit. Gen. Hancock passed through Spottsylvania Court-house on the Bth, and on the same day Grant's headquar ters were 20 miles south of the battlefield of the 6th. President Lincoln has issued a proclamation stat ing that sufficient was known of the Federal opera. tions to give cause for special gratitude to God, and recommending all patriots to return thanks to Him. Congratulatory visits were paid by the Washington citizens to the President, when he made a speech, in which be said that, although Grant had met with stubborn resistance, he was not forced back from the line of operations on which he had started, but was advancing on the line he had marked out before the movement commenced. Correspondents furnish the following particu lars : Cotton slightly firmer, middling upland, 85c, to 86c. Flour quiet. Wheat advancing. Corn better. Provisions steady. Coffee quiet. Sugar firmer. Molasses quiet. Petroleum—crude, 37,i0.; refined, 57tc. to 58c, In the battle of the sth General Sedgwick ad vanced on the centre, General Hancock on the left, and General Warren on the centre. Strong resist ance was offered by the Confederates under Generals Hiil, Lou gstreet, and Ewell, and fighting continued along the whole Federal line until nightfall. In this day's battle the Confederates are reported to have captured nearly the whole of two Federal bri gades, together with their commanders—Seymour and Shale:. On the 6th the engagement was re newsd, and continued throughout the day with little abatement. In the forenoon Hancock was driven back, the Confederates repossessing themselves of some of the ground lost on the previous day. Sedg wick, on the right, was thrown into confusion, but reformed, supported by Bnrnside's reserve. Late in the day the Confederates pierced the Federal cen tre, pushing the Federals so far back as nearly to detach their right wing. At the close of the even ing the advantage appeared to be on the side of the Confederates. Oa the night of the 6th Grant transferred the 6th corps from the right to the extreme left and consoli dated his lines. Lee commenced retreating during the night, and on the following day the firing was of a desultory nature, both armies manoeuvring, Grant advancing his troops on the Spottsylvania Court-house road. In the afternoon Lee's whole force was in full retreat, in good order, to take up another line of defence. It was supposed that Lee would halt on the North Anna River. The Federal losses in both days' battles are esti mated at from 8,000 to 12,000 men hors de combat. A telegram from the Medical Directorannounced that from 6,000 to 8,000 wounded were being seat on to Washington. Ia his official report of the battle of the 6th Gene ral Lee says : " Our loss in killed is large, but we have not many wounded. General Longstreet is severely wounded, Pegram badly wound►d, and Jenkins killed." He thanks God that every advance of Grant had been repulsed. FortPowhattan,Wilaon's Wharf, and City Point, on the James River, had been occupied by General Butler without resistance, and on the 9th the same General reports that he had advanced up the Pen insula with 1,700 coloured cavalry, crossing the Cnickahominy to take up positions. As the Fede rals advanced on Richmond 3,000 cavalry from Suffolk crossed the Blackwater River and burnt the railroad bridge be'ow Petersburg, thereby sepa rating Beauregard's forces at Petersburg. One portion of Beauregard'a forces was beaten by Butler after severe fighting. Butler has ordered up sup plies, saying he can hold his position against Lee's whole army. He says Grant will not be troubled with reinforcements to Lee from Beauregard. General Sherman has occupied Tunnel-hill, and General Johnston is in position at Buzzard Roost Pass, north of Dalton. Sherman is now fighting for possession of Rocky Face Ridge. Macpherson has taken Snake Creek Gap, and is within seven miles of Renee, in Johnston's rear, Scolefield flank ing Johnston from Cleveland, From the Red River accounts continue more dis astrous to the Federal arms. The Confederate ram off Newbora is reported to have sunk. The New York Chamber of Commerce has ap pointed a committee to receive subscriptions to pay the interest of the State debt to foreigners in coin. COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE, Money abundant. Gold, 69 per cent. premium. Exchange on London, 186. Stocks firm, and advancing. New York Centrals, 1301 ; Illinois, 1241 ; Erie, 109,1 ; Six per Cent, United States' Bonds, 1061. Cotton quiet—middling upland, 83c. Petroleum —crude, 381 c. ; refined, 56c. MAY 11, 6 a.m. Mr. Stanton reports that in General Grant's de spatches, dated the 9th, afternoon, it is stated that Lee made a stand at Spottsylvania Court-house. but no gener a l engagemen t Hard fighting occurred, ensued. G en eral Sedgwick w as killed b y sharpshooters. On the 9th Grant showed no signs of renew i ng the attack, being engaged in replenishing his stores from the supply train, in order to be able to advance without that encumbrance. Generals Getty, Talbot, Morris, Robinson, and Baxter have been wounded. Correspondents state the sth Federal Army Corps to have been engaged on the Bth inst. three miles north of Spottsylvania Court-house with General Ewell and part of Longstreet's corps, which had reached Spottsylvania by an i nne r road. The position, but suffered heavily in Federals held t heir killed and wounded. Grant is reported to be two miles north of Spott sylvania Court-house, with Lee in his front, Ewell holding the heights north of that place. Grant's losses are now estimated at 27,000 men. It is reported that Gene ral Butler was engaged yesterday, and that an engagement also took place between the iron clads on James River. (BY TELEGRAPH TO HALIFAX.) NEW YORK, May 12, Morning. On the 10th inst. General Grant fought another sanguinary battle with Lee, which lasted from the afternoon until dark. Grant's lines extended six miles along the north-east bank of the river Po, the Confederates occupying the south-east bank and the village of Spottsylvania. The attack was com menced by the artillery of General Grant. Towards dark Burnside was ordered to charge the Con fede. rate right flank. when it was discovered that Lee had advanced round the Federal right flank, and was moving down to break through Grant's lines, and in th e F re d a and had capt ured the su pp l y ricksburg pl ank -road. This checked Burnside's intended movem ent, and he held his ground, threatening the Confederate right, w hil e the Sixth Corps charged the Confederate . centre, drivi ng t h e enemy from their first li ne of rifle pits and captur ing 2,000 priseners, In consequence of Lee's movement Grant placed his troops about, and having moved his trains to the rear, secured a new position for his artillery; but Lee did not follow up the movement. Daring the night ho was reported to be moving. Oa the 11th Burnside advanced and occupied Scotts} ivania Court-house, driving ilid's forces before him. G raut's arc now eiJtimteci to bag° reached Naval and Military Intelligence, THE NAVY. On Friday afternoon, the 13th inst., five large ships be longing to the Channel squadron, under command of Rear- Admiral S. C. Dacres, C. 8., arrived in Plymouth Sound from the Downs. Although it was the period of neap tides, they were safely navigated one at a time, and a high water perr4itted, through the narrows into lismeaze, and placed iD, the various docks in the arsenals at Devonport and Key ham, The water was then pumped out, the bottoms of the ships were cleansed and recoated, the valves were ovez hauled, and all the necessary interior alterations were made; the water was let into the docks again, and on Saturday last the ships resumed their moorings in Plymouth Sound, fully prepared for any contingency. The depth of water in the harbour, the value of the recent enlargement of the docks, and other improvements at Plymouth, have thus been tested most satisfactorily; but it was only through the energy of the Harbour master, the Master attendant, and the officers and artisans of the establishment, cordially aided by the commanders and crews of the ships, that so much has been done in so short a time. The Controller of the Navy, Rear-Admiral Spencer Robinson, has been in frequent personal consultation with Rear-Admiral Sy monds, C. 8., superintendent of the yard, and the services of the electric wire in connection with Whitehall have been in constant requisition. The flagship Edgar, 71, Capt. G. T. Hornby was placed in No 2 dock at Keyham, where her copper was cleansed from all the slime and weed which had accumulated during the last 12 months. The iron built screw steamship Black Prince, Capt. James F. W. Wain wright, was placed in the Prince's Dock at Devonport, out of which she was taken in November, 1863. Her bottom was tolerably free ; it was scoured, and received another coating of Hay's composition. Her frame ap pears to have sustained its original condition unbroken— the sights on deck proved her to be precisely the same in dock as when afloat. According to Admiralty order, the ponderous screw, 35 tons, was lifted and refixed, The pine lining of the ammunition-room has been replaced with tea, and her engineers have been supplied with the new regulation lanterns. The screw steamship Warrior, 40, Capt. the Hon. Arthur A. Cochrane, undertook in Novem ber, 1863, was placed in the Queen's Dock at Keyham, which has just been lengthened, She received another coating of Hay's composition ; her screw was lifted, and some eight or ten Armstrong guns, the copper lining of the chambers of which was defective, were exchanged for ethers differently lined. During the last cruise she was trimmed I three feet by the stern. The enlargement of her rudder has proved satisfactory. Although of the same eize, 6,loo:tons, and having engines of the same power, 1,250 horses, both by Penn and Sons, she has always beaten her sister ship, the Black Prince (which is 8 feet longer), whether under steam or canvass. Her commission will terminate in August next, but her hull and engines appear to be suf ficiently sound to undertake another commission. The arrior has not " broken" in dock a quarter of an inch. Her engines have been supplied with some spare propeller brasses; the Upton vibe for the banjo propeller frame con tinues in good order, Experienced engineers consider that both the Black Prince and the Warrior would work better with a fixed four-bladed screw like that of the Achilles, by the adoption of which also the weight of the screw sheers, four tons, and the banjo frame, seven tons, right aft, would be avoided. The Defence, 16, Capt. Augustus Phillimore (undocked in October last), was placed in No. 1 dock in the Devonport-yard, where her coating of Peacock's composi tion was renewed. She is termed a " good ship." Under canvass, her sister, the Rcsistance, 17, is the swifter of the two. Her officers consider that the frame of the Defence and her interior fittings are heavier-than those of the Resist ance. The iron-cased ehip Prince Consort, 35, Captain George G. Willes, C. 8., which was also undocked in Octo ber, 1863, was placed in No, 1 dock at Keyham. Her con dition excited considerable interest, from the fact that after her memorable trip to Dublin last year it was discovered that galvanic action had already set in on the iron plates. Tc prevent the continuance of this evil, the upper layer of her Muntz's metal was stripped cff, and immediately below the iron plates a cutting, 4 inches deep, was made in the plank all round the ship, and a band of zinc, 14 inch thick and 4 inches wide, was inserted. The intermediate thick ness, 24 inches, was filled in with plank after the heads of her copper bolts had been struck off. This band would have been 6 inches wide, but for the risk of disturbing a much larger number of copper bolts. The Lords of the Admiralty consider the results of the experiment sufficiently satisfac tory to justify them in their determination to place a zinc band 12 inches wide round the iron cased cupola ship Royal Sovereign, 5, at Portsmouth. It is considered at Devonport that by cutting out so much of a ship's original planking immediately under the lowest tier of iron plates that tier is left almost entirely dependent on the support of its bolts, as the original wooden foundation is to a great extent removed. Her Majesty's corvette Wolverine, 21, Capt. De Horsey, still remains in the river off Woolwich dockyard. Her de lay is occasioned by the necessity of returning the whole of her chain cables, and supplying others in their place, to work more freely over the capstans. Her present orders are to join the Channel, and proceed eventually to the West India station. The Swedish screw corvette Gefle, 16, Capt Adeborg, from Cherbourg for Stockholm, put into Great Yarmouth roadstead last week for coal. On receiving supplies she pro ceeded on her voyage, THE ARMY. Prince Arthur and his cousin, Prince Adolphus Frede rick of Mecklenburg btrelitz, attended by Major Elphin stone, R.A., paid a morning visit on Saturday to Woolwich Arsenal, and were received with Royal honours. They went over the whole establishment, examining each branch with great attention. They entered first the dial square, or foun dry branch of the Royal gun factories, where they were shown a huge slab of iron weighing 75 tons, cast on the pre ceding day, and intended as a block for one of the 14 ton steam hammers used in making the coiled guns. They next visited the gun factories, and remained there a considerable time, inspecting the new 7 inch and 9 inch naval guns in course of manufacture. They also witnessed, with much apparent interest, the operations at the coiling and welding forges, boring mills, sighting and view rooms, er-e., inspected the sealed pattern rooms and gun stores, and proceeded through the shell factories, carriage department, gun mounting shed, laboratory, papermill, &0., and left for Greenwich Park at 1. On Thursday afternoon their Royal Highnesses went up the river from Woolwich Dockyard on a trial trip of the first new twin screw steam launch, built for th e i ron ship Minotaur, and f i tte d w i t h a m oveable engine by M essrs. Maudelah Sons, and Field. They afterwards visit e d t h e dockyard and the ships i n pro gress. Col. Guy, C. 8., commandant at the camp at Colchester, completed on Thursday the official half- yearly inspection of the troops by visiting the battalion schools and witnessing swot d exercise among the officers. The results of the in spection have been generally satisfactory, Col. Sir 1). Wood, C. 8., and headquarters, together with Major Reilly's and Lieut.-Col. Mitchell's batteries of the B brigade, Royal Horse Artillery, are under orders to leave Woolwich and commence their match on June 1 for the camp at Aldershott. On Friday last Col. Hine, Bth Hussars, Government in. specting officer of pensioners, reviewed the pensioners of the Nottingham district in the park adjoining the town. About 408 were present. After the inspection had termi nated Col. Hine complimented Col. Storer, commander of the pensioners, on having the honour to command such a fine body of veterans. He said that his report of their effi ciency would be favourable. [ADVERTISEMENT.]—ConsumptIon, all nervous, bilious, liver, and stomach complaints, la every stage, are only ag gravatei and accelerated by drugs of every description, but perfectly curable by Du Barry's health restoring Revalenta Arabica Food, as proved by thousands of cases which nad been considered hopeless. We quote a few.—Cure No. 62,914. Miss Lange, 18 years of age, cured after the medical men had abandoned all hopes of her recovery from the last stage of Pulmonary consumption, with fearful cough, expectoration, exhaustion, spitting of blood, perspirations, hollow cheeks, emaciated to a skeleton. She is now, thank God, a perfectly healthy, blooming, fleshy girl,—N. Lange, Commissalre de Police. Cure, No. 46,270. Mr. James Roberts, of Fernley Surrey, of thirty years' diseased lungs, spittin of blood, liver derangement, and partial deafness.—Cure, No. 47,121. Miss Elizabeth Jacobs, of extreme nervousness , indi g estion, gatherings, low spirits, and nervous fancies.—Cure, No. 54,816. the R ev. James P. Cam?bell, Faken h am , Norfolk, of all medical indigestian and torpidity of th e li v er, which had resisted treatment. In tins, 11b, 25 9d; 21b, 4s 6 d; 51b, 11 a ; 121 b, 225; 241 b, 408 . Barry du Barry and CJ., No. 77, Itegent-street, Loudon ; also Fortnum and 3fa.son; and all grocers and chemizta in every town of the United Kingdom, THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 23, 1864. PRUSSIA. The following, being the official text of the de spatch forwarded to the Prussian Ambassador in London by Herr von Bismarck on the 15th inst., as announced by telegraph, has been received at Mr. Renter's office : Berlin, May 15, As it is to 1 00 foreseen that the question of the position of the two ilerman Powers with regard to the London Treaty of 1052 will be brought forward at the approaching sittings of the Conference, I find it requisite to make the following remarks upon the subject : Up to the death of King Frederick VII, the German Powers were able to expect that the Crown of Denmark would fulfil the obligations it had undertaken to wards them, and that by this means, and by a presentation of a succession law to the Estates of the Duchies—which has not even yet taken place—the order of succession aimed at by the London Treaty would be placed in a perfectly legal position before the anticipatea, case of the demise of the Crown actually oceurrva, These expectations were not only frustrated by the death of the King, but his successor upon the Danish throne im mediately proclaimed his intention, by the Act of Nov. 18, not to comply with those obligations. The Government of the King immediately called atten tion to the connection of these obligations with the intended order of succession, with regard to which I need only refer to my despatch No. 487, of Nov. 23, and repeatedly declared that it should theretore consider itself justified in regarding the Treaty of 1852 as no longer bindindupon Prussia. That she did not instantly proclaim her withdrawal from that ar rangement was owing solely to regard for the remaining Powers, and to hope that Denmark's yielding, by receding from the open breach of her obligations, would re-establish the preliminary conditions and afford the possibility of the maintenance of peace. Even when this hope was deceived, when the constitu tion for Schleswig, opposed to the treaty, not only remained unretracted upon the Ist January, but then came into operation, the two German Powers were un willing to make any immediate use cf their rights. Even at the moment when they were forced to adopt warlike measures against Denmark, they declared in the despatch of the 31st January of the present year that they did not intend to attack the principle of the integrity of the Danish monarchy. But they at the same time expressly stated that Denmark's further persistence in the course she had adopted would compel them to sacrifices which would render it their duty to give up the combinations of 1852, and to endeavour to come to an understanding upon some other arrangement with the siguataries of the London Treaty. This case has completely occurred. The Danish Govern ment has carried its persistence in denial to the utmost, and has continued armed resistance to the last. After all these occurrences the Government of the King cannot consider itself in any way longer bound by the obli gations as contracted on the Bth May, 1852, under other circumstances. Prussia concluded this treaty with Den mark, and not with the other Powers; the ratifications were only exchanged between Copenhagen and Berlin, not between Berlin and London, or St. Petersburg. Even if, which we do not admit, the London Treaty had been in tended to create obligations between us and the neutral Powers, these would become void together with the treaty as soon as the latter lapsed through non -fulfilment of its preliminary conditions. The Government of the King therefore considers itself, in accordrnce with the declaration of Jan. 31, entirely free from all obligations which could be deduced from the Lon don Treaty of 1852, and justified in discussing any other combination quite independent of that treaty. It results from the nature of political relations that the solution of a question, the European bearing of which the Government of the King has never undervalued, should be attempted in common with the other great Powers, and this natural consequence is recognised by the Government in the concluding sentence of the declaration of January 31. By accepting the English invitation to the Conference the Government of the King has given pooof of its readi ness to seek for and discuss in common the means for this purpose ; and this and nothing else can be the task of the Conference. (Signed) VON BISMARCK. The Schleswig-Holstein Question, The following is a copy of a declaration which has been presented to the Conference by his High ness the Duke Frederic of Schleswig-Holstein : The approaching re-union of a conference, summoned to deliberate on the means of restoring peace to the North of Europe, induces me to make a statement of my rights which are inseparable from those of my country, and the recog. nition of which can alone bring about a durable peace. I acknowlege the generous intentions of the Great Powers to terminate the present effusion of blood. An assembly of European representative is undoubtedly fully authorised to make common efforts for attaining so noble an aim. Still such an assembly is necessarily limited in its attributions, and cannot decide upon the destinies of a sovereign and. of a country, without having obtained their participation and consent. By the demise of his Majesty the King, Duke Frederic VII,, Providence called me to the throne of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The right of succession, which I claim as representative of the eldest line of the House of Oldenburg, is conformaLle to the law of all Germany, and of those European countries in which the inheritance to he throne follows the agnatic principle. Agnation succes, sion, by order of line and primogeniture, has been esta. blished for the Duchies, not only by the statutes of the reigning house, tut still more by pacts concluded between the reigning family and the Estates. It has, moreover, been observed, as a law, during a series of centuries, and serves e s the basis of public law in the Duchies. Upon this basis repose the claims of the Duchies to their union and their autonomy. The validity of my rights exists independently of the recognition of any foreign Powers. It is an absolutely do- mestic question. Consequently the Treaty of London of the Bth of May, 1852, cannot alter or affect the identical rights of my family and my country. The carrying out of that treaty would, on the contrary, infringe the sacred rights of crowned heads and of populations. The treaty never received the adhesion of the agnates, nor that of the representative bodies, condi tions inherent to the treaty itself. His Majesty the King of Denmark has never fulfilled them with regard to the Duchies, although he has accomplished them in part with respect to Denmark; neither has the Germanic Confedera tion, whose mission it is to protect the members which compose it, adhered thereto. Engraven in the conscience of the people, and considered to be the condition of its public prosperity, my right con- stitutes itself a power. In 1846, when the Court of Copen hagen showed the desire to:assimilate the laws of succession in the Duchies and in the Kingdom of Denmark, it alone was able to excite immediately general agitation and resist. ante. When a little time after the Danish Government threatened to abolish in the Duchies the succession in ag natic order, and to unite Schleswig to Denmark, the entire population of the two Duchies took up arms in defence of their independence. In the sanguinary struggle, which lasted three successive years, the population furnished proofs that its own rightw and those of its princes shall be held by it ever sacred. It was these same principles of legitimacy and national independence which, at the death of his Majesty the King, Duke Frederic VII., caused a general movement to take place. The great majority of the national functionaries re fused the oath of fidelity to an illegitimate sovereign. Po pular agitation already threatened to assume a warlike atti tude when the Federal troops and the armies of the great Powers deliveried the Duchies from the Danish yoke. The population, once more their own masters, destroyed the en signs of foreign royalty in presence even of a hostile army. A part of the country proclaimed my rights. The war con tinues at present its sanguinary course. By whatever one pleases to designate it, it is in its nature and origin a war of succession. Declarations on the part of the representative bodies, those of the several corporations, as well as the homage paid ese by the inhabitants in general, leave no doubt that in despite of the difficulties accruing from the situation of Europe, neither the population nor myself will ever renounce our legitimate right. In presence of such unanimity it can no longer be questioned that a claim so identical with the interests of the country, and so based on the conscience of the public, must be of invincible force. I feel fully aware of the responsibility that I have taken upon myself in proclaiming my rights in presence of my people. Did it concern merely my person and my family I should have hesitated, if not in presence of future dangers, at least in that of an imminent effusion of blood. But the firm conviction that my rights form the basis of the liberty and happiness of the people of Schleswig Holstein has guided me in every act since the death of Frederick VII. During all time, inked, a profound antipathy has existed, notwithstanding affinity of race, between the inhabitants of Schleswig Holstein and those of Denmark. The history of the preceding eight centuries bears sanguinary traces of it. Under whatever form of government it has been at tempted to unite the two peoples it has always failed. The government imposed upon the Duchies in 1852 led to an oppressive tyranny which did not respect either the school 1 or the Church. The people of Schleswig-Holstein consider their inde pendence as the only guarantee of the future. Any other arrangement can merely aliment a new conflict, and provoke disastrous troubles. The separation of the Duchies from Denmark is thus de manded, not only by the principles of legitimacy and legality, but also by the exigencies of humanity and uni versal peace. Even supposing that one might ouccced by force to replace the Duchies under the Danish yoke, they would not fail to seize the first opportunity to shake off a rule as odious as unrighttul, .Aa to myself, I should con sider it my duty to summon them at the fit moment to arms. If, in spite of the spontaneous and non -official manifes tations of populations and actual representatives, Europe should still entertain doubts of the veritable opinion of the country, and should still cling to historic right, rotbing can be more equitable than to appeal to the official manifes tations of the will of the country. There are different modes of ascertaining what are its. opinions, For my part I object to none, provided the ludo- tEinaerine of the vote be fully guaranteed, and provided it establishes in an incontestable manner whether the inha bitants of Schleswig-Holstein consider themselves to be my subjects or subjects of the King of Denmark. Although I had resolved to quit my country no 'tore, I rhutild neverthelP.se ronvnt, in any case, to withdraw from it di)rint tia continuance of the vote, in order to take away ail appearance of pressure, The love of the Duchies for their independence is no empty caprice. They possess the qualities and the resources necessary for their development, and only regret not to have been able to prove up to the present moment the energy of their will by taking part in the combats engaged for their cause. Let them be only replaced in that State of defence in which they were when Europe, and not Denmark, disarmed them, and they will prove by deeds that they know how to 'conquer and maintain their independence. I have not thought it sufficient to protest simply in the name of my own rights and those of my country against the violence that might be exercised against them, and to claim my due when the question was discussed. I thought it my duty to explain at the same time how the realisation of these rights corresponds to the wishes of the people, and how in respecting them the exigencies of justice and the conditions of a durable peace will be conciliated. The past attests that as long as the Schleswig-Holstein quarrel shall not be settled in a legal manner, it will never cease to re appear on battle-fields and in European congresses until that day when full satisfaction shall have been given to legitimate rights and to the national cause. Kiel, April 16, 1864. (Signed) FREDERRIC• SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. AY LITERARY y n re F " rf O N N D TH D E IN P N R E I R N . LE Th Or e WALE THE A g S T A THE T U R D London season would be incomplete without the Royal Academy Dinner and the Literary Fund Dinner. There is a common nature belonging to these two national institutions, for such they are, though there is a great difference between the artists entertaining their patrons and friends of literature eating, drinking, and speechifying in be half of an admirable charity for the worn-out pens and dried ink bottles of the day. What they have in common is that the notables of social rank, the statesmen and political men, the writers and artiste of the time are expected on these occasions to deliver themselves of set orations in praise of art and letters. There is not a little interest in all this. The - country lectures at the local Athen ma delivered by holiday making M.P.'s have their value. One sometimes laughs at the parturient pains of a coun try gentleman delivering himself of a sort of would be academical doge, and uttering the improptu reminiscences of history and classics for which he is furtively indebted to the curate of the parish. But all this tends to keep up at least the preten sion of an educated standard ; and as every noble man of mark and every Cabinet Minister is always expected to be ready with some reminiscences of general reading and literary or artistic talk at one or other of the twin London dinners, the Literary Fund anniversary has its value. The charity which it represents is well and usefully conducted ; and though an attempt was unsuccessfully made a few years ago to discredit its management, general con fidence is felt in its efficiency. On Wednesday the Prince of Wales commenced what we may almost call his public life by presiding at this dinner. The occasion must have been a very trying one. These celebrations are attended by an exacting and critical, though generous, audience. Men not only of mark, but of tried eloquence, and long ex perience in sitting at the middle of a great cross table, would find on this special occasion a difficult task before them. The Prince of Wales had to make his debut, not only as a Chairman and a speech-maker, but as a public man. It is en odd way that we have of introducing the Heir of Eng land or the Consort of the Queen to the duties of station and responsibility by asking him to make a speech on books and bookmakers in general. But the son had only to follow his father's admirable example. It were, of course, invidious to compare Prince Albert and the Prince of Wales on a similar occasion. Prince Albert's mind was cast in the professorial mould. Set speeches and occasional spoken essays of the formal and academic type — papers, for such they were, carefully elaborated and thought over—were eminently suited to his cast of thought. His education had fitted him to compose and deliver them; and a powerful and re flective mind, deeply impressed with the delicate responsibilities of his station, and perfectly aware that he had many prejudices to combat, was spurred by the opportunity of making a public speech. It was by his public speeches that the late Prince Consort slowly won his way, first to the attention, then to the respect, and lastly to the admiration of the country. The same inducements to a special energy are not necessary in the Prince of Wales's case. His education had been different from that of his father. What is wanted in a constitutional Sove reign is not so much genius and deep wisdom as ease, a thorough sense of responsibility, good taste, and right feeling. Splendid abilities are almost out of place in our Sovereigns. The Prince of Wales exhibited these qualities both of mind and character in all that he is reported to have said on Wednesday eveniug. He went in a business-like way to the purpose of the meeting, and we all like to see common sense taking the practical view of things. After all, the Literary Fund is simple in its obj e cts. It gives to decayed and roar authors some little solace and comforts in age and sickness; it gives aid secretly; its almoners are men of honour; and its managers know that letters would be dishon oured by the popular arts of begging, and by popu lar reports and eloquent secretarial talk. The Prince of Wales said this, and, because it was a simple thing to say, he said it simply and without affecta tion. There was good taste in avoiding the style of an undergraduate's theme on the objects, plea sures, and advantages of learning in general ; and there were too many old stagers present, who had themselves prolusionised in rectorial addresses and lectures at country institutes, for the Prince to have any chance in the high style of platitude and con ventional rhetoric. And there was good taste , and good feeling also, in the brief but sincere tribute to his father's memory, and to his father's app earance on a former occasion of the same nature. A lto g ether the Prince achieved a marked success , if success consists in having a tt a ining it. The He a ir t o th sufficient eThrone and in England has a part to play, or rather a function to discharge, which is not without its difficulties ; but those diffi purp ofos e, culties are best got over by perfect and entire sin cerity and simp l icity. Honesty carries a man, on the whole, through the duties of life better than any other quality. The late Prince Consort was honest and loyal to his duties, and he recognised their special temptations. He met their subtlety by equal subtlety of intellect; his decisions showed the result of deep thought and long pondering. But this habit of mind has in its turn its dangers, espe cially to a public man. If the late Prince Consort had not been loyal to his country , hem ight have been a very dangerous intriguer. He was too , good to be dangerous, but his characte r had all the e lements of political skill and subtlety in it. If the father's position had its temptations and snares, in his case so happily conquered, the son's position is scarcely less difficult, though upon other grounds. The heir to the throne cannot be very prominent, and yet, if he is not in some sense a public man, his country will complain. No man is the worse for an apprenticeship to his calling ; but history presents a catalogue of heirs apparent to thrones who have certainly not learned how to rule by their expectancy of rule. In political matters the Prince of Wales may have, or rather must have, opinions, but a constraint is laid upon him not to express them. Yet the best years youth and opening manhood are but idl y spent in exclusive devotion to the pursuits of country life without its personal responsibilities. On every account, there wilt gladly see the Prince of fore, the country Wales accepting, as he has already done, those entifyi op. be of ng himself portunities,rare though 00' i üblicinterests which have with some of those lofty p made our and his England what it is. Among those public interests —the common ground of all educated and public men, in which party can have no place and selfish aggrandisement is impossible— literature stands, if not pr e-eminent , at least very high. The Prince of ',Vales has been educated to n appreciate literature ; a hereditary taste in art and reverence for science must be natural in his father's son. If the Prince's sphere of usefulness and the range of his possible duties are but narrow, the country will more thoroughly appreciate the diligent cultivation of a scanty field. It is of good omen that his public career has been commenced under auspices which, in his father's case conducted to public confidence. Even the honest desire to tread in his father's s teps will be loyally appre ciated. Letters, and a kindred taste for letters, give princes friends which stand them in better stead than the m inions of fashion or te parasites of faction. Our real greatness depende h not upon our arms, but upon arts, and the country which is not great intellectually has but a poor hold on material prosperity. That the Prince of Wales is disposed frankly to recognise the highest sources of national greatness is surely a matter for national congratu let ion. TLIE "SPECTATOR" ON JOHN PARRY AND MRS. ROSELEAF'S EVENING PARTY.—FeW people com paratively, we imagine, are aware how very extra ordinary an intellectual feat has been for some time nightly visible in London at one of those evening " entertainments" which is to a play what peps is to wine, or at which the drama loses half its evil by losing all its interest—the " Gallery of Illustra tration.' You have indeed to go through something to arrive at it, for Mr. and Mrs. German Reed, while they provide no doubt all that a well-regu lated mind ought to expect at an evening's enter tainment, and apparently succeed in entertaining by their various rechaups of themselves in diffe rent costumes those who come willing and anxious to " make believe very much" as the Marchioness said to Mr. Swiveller about her diluted beer, cer tainly do not attempt to furnish any very refined species of amusement. For any one, however, who will sit out the dinner for the sake of the dessert, there is reserved a rare and, in its light way, even subtle enjoyment. The last half 1 , - lour of the '° en tertainment" is more than entertaining; it is an achieVement Which not dui' illetetrates it, extends the very meaning we attach to the phrase "Plastic art. Mr. John Parry—whom we can recollect, we should think, twenty years ago singing that ordi narily vulgar species of song called "comic" with a humour and expression that allied them to Corn:.lv rather than farce—comes on to the scene alone and in his own dress, and tells the audience that he is going to introduce them to Mrs. Roseleaf's evening party. It may possibly slightly help the illusion, he says, if, when he represents Mrs. Roseleaf herself, he takes up a fan and bouquet which he shows us lying on the piano, but he will not need any other aid at all from costume. Thus much he says simply in his own person, and the audience have time, while he is saying it., to notice a face somewhat wan, rather weary, yet with a colour slightly hectic, perfectly refined, and yet with something of that expression of mental bareness—of thought and emotion with the bloom off by being laid bare to others—which we somehow associate with a cha racteristic roundness, baldness, and absence of cross lines of thought or feeling on the face. No face could be imagined that offers at the first glance less promise of flexibility. You would say of it—as Shakspere said of the elephant—that " its legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure,"—that its lines of expression are lines for necessity, not for flexure. You have scarcely made up your mind that it is so, when Mr Parry sits down to the piano, and his face at once assumes that stolid expression of hired drudgery, of business islanded in the amusement of others, which, .without an explanation, declares to every one the professional pianist engaged for an evening party at which there are to be a few qua drilles. While thus playing Mr. Parry announces the names of a few guests succeeding one another, and presently rising from the piano he takes up his bouquet and fan, and the stolid persistency of the hired musician is suddenly transformed into the engaging suavity and complaisance of a lady-like hostess. Mrs Roseleaf is a thorough lady, slightly affected indeed, but with the affectation arising from an excessive andibiiity, not from any tinge of vul garity. There is nothing very original in any thing she says—" This is a pleasure indeed—so kind of you to come," and so forth ; but the spectator gazing through the best of opera glasses at the gentleman in plain black clothes who is saying all this, can hardly persuade himself it is a gen tleman at all, and not Mrs. Roseleaf. Indeed, so strcng is the illusion that when we come away and recall the scene in memory, it is the hardest thing in the world to believe we have seen only one actor throughout, and that actor a gentleman not in disguise. Presently Mrs Roseleaf inquires after the baby of one of her guests, and the reply indistinctly murmured is re flected with such extraordinary vividness in the dropping lines of unspeakable concern in her faca, that you know it must have been croup of a more than ordinarily dangerous kind. When the answer toithe next inquiry after a second child again length ens out the face, it is to a less degree, and you see the amiable hostess's desire to blend her sympathy with the cheering playfulness appropriate to the occasion when ,her guests are not, after all, in too much alarm to come to her party; and so with .a pleasant regret of expression she slides back through some a uch remark as " Sad indeed, why you have had quite a sick house," to her gentle company-smile. Then she introduces her little daughter to her friend, and the pleasant company smile gro ;vs tender with the illusions of maternal pride. The daughter is, of course, present only to the spiritual gaze of the spectator, but few who re call the scene will find it easy to persuade them selves that the little girl was only suggested to them, and no more there than any other of the shadowy actors. While being praised for decorous and pretty behaviour, the young lady snatches at the fan or the bouquet, and the mother's pride in her good conduct changes gently into playful amuse ment at her childish tricks. Then the lath) girl retires and the party grows denser. You can see that Mrs. Roseleaf moves about with greater diffi culty and more anxious sense of responsibility. She prevails on a Mr Jane to sing, and the fan and bouquet vanishing, we suddenly behold Mrs. Rose leaf no more, but a vain and self absorbed young man of muddy sentiment, awkwardly conscious of literary pretensions, and with a stooping gait, who, with a glass in his eye, is watching discontentedly for an admiration which he does not seem to receive. The extraordinary expression of turbid fermenting vanities—not complaisant nor self-assured, bat suddenly exigeant, which now passes over the actor's face is again completely transforming ; age, cha racter, everythin 0. is absolutely changed; the scum of gloomy hoobbledehoyish conceit spreads like an unclear fluid over the whole face. He sings his song, " Would you love me, if you knew me ?" (" Words and music both my own," as he blurts outs with a gloomy and clumsy vanity at the con clusion), interrupted by numerous announcements of successive guests, at each of which Mr. Jen e darts furious glances towards the door—and at the end scuffles away from the piano with sulky e 3 es, at one inflicting retribution, and searching the com pany for traces of admiration—amidst the profuse thanks and apologies of Mrs. Roseleaf. Then Mrs. Roseleaf consults her husband as to the next part of the programme, and decides to get the Fluenzas to sing. The Fluenz As, howe v e r, are obviousl y divided' from her by a great crush, though no men. tion is made of it—and the inimitable company playfulness with which she peeps through an acci dental vista in the crowd and wafts with sweetest fascination and emiling menace, threatening a re quest, the words, "I'm coming to you," over the intervening space, is one of the most effective touches in the piece. Mr. Fluenza has a fearful cold, and complying at his wife's instance gets through a single line of modulated cough—on which Mr. and Mrs. Roseleaf interchange with each other a very expressive sentence or two of condolence — and then we are introduced to Miss Flora Gushing ton, a young lady of conscious attractions, who sings an Italian duet with an admirer at the urgent request of Mr. Roseleaf—and whose sweet and side long but still open demands for admiration are a very curious contrast to the fumes of smoky conceit which clouded Mr. Jene's brow. And so the even ing party slides away—the pianist getting more weary and utterly mechanical in his movements, and more profoundly wooden-faced, as he plays the last Sir Roger de Coverley, and the company disperse. The marvel of the performance is the extraordinarily powertul impression left upon the mind that the characters and faces we have seen are all really genuine and distinct ;—the inability to connect them with the black-suited gen tleman, as we yet know, was the only person pre sent. It is, in its way, the most wonderful triumph of powers of expression over plain material fact that can well be conceived. The only machinery used is the symbolism of voice, gesture, and lines of ex pression,—and to counteract all these is the physi cal evidence of our senses that no one is there but Mr. John Parry in Mr. John Parry's ordinary dress, —and yet we carry away the keenest feeling of only having seen Mr. John Parry at the commencement and conclusion, and of having beheld in the interval all kinds of invisible ladies and gentlemen, whose characteristic gait and expressions there was nothing to show us except the changing postures and lines in the actor's person and face. The feeling it pro duces almost is, that Mr. Parry must himself get confused between his real and some of his fictitious characters. THE " LONDON REVIEW" ON " THE OWL" AND THE FRENCH EMPEROR.—For some time a mystery has hung over certain small and humorous extracts that , have . appeared, both in the M orn i n g Post and in tne Imes, headed with the significant title of The Owl. What was The Owl? Where was its place of . habitation ? Noboby seemed to know. " Monsieur, perche apparemment," said M. Talley■ rand to a lame gentleman who was boasting that he never went to bed. Doubtless The Owl roosted somewhere, but it had no known locus standi. All that could be considered certain was that it was a bird of audacious tendencies, and very much in clined to make fun of her Majesty's Government. This week, however, The Owl has won for it.' self an European reputation. Across the Channel, the Emperor's private secretary, M. Mocquard, was alarmed by it, and hastily wrote to the French papers to contradict the truth of what, in the columns of The (ADZ, never pretended to be more than an amusing joke. Sitting aloft on its post or perch of observation, the Owl, for some weeks, has been retailing to the public every kind of State secret. The members of the Conference have . been taken off seriatim; Lord Russell has be en depicted as he might demean himself when offering a remark in German to M. von Beust ; and the world has been even favoured with a pretended copy of the des patches sent to the admiral of the Channel. fleet. Daring the last week, the mysterious bird of Minerva published a clever squib, purporting to be a letter addressed to the Owl, by M. Mocquard, on the sub ject o_ the foreign policy of the Falmerstonian Mini stry. The Owl had not thought, we are told, of publishing at all for a fortnight; for it appears that the publication of the Owl is irregular, and depends on the sweet caprice of its editor. But when the letter—eerbosa et grundis q stola—arrived from the Tuileries, on the merits of the system of "med dle and muddle," the Owl felt it a solemn duty to reeoluider its decision, and came out into daylight •, upon the spot. When Sydney Smilti complained that nothing less than a surgical operation would ever get ajoke into a Scotchman's head, he never pro bably thought that a Charivari would pass muster among the crowned heads of Europe as a State paper. M. Mocquard's sense of the ridiculous must have been strangely swallowed up in the solemnity of his position. His excuse is th e less, for not only is he said to Ise familiar with English life, but he is also a man of letters. 'the only thing to be urged his favour is the fact that his impteial master so often is wont to burst upon the world with docu silents of aleimilar:description, that perhaps M.;Moce guard trebled lest Europe should be imposed upon by a second forgery fellowing so closely upon the forged Confederate despetela It may pos sibly be—and may Lord Russell forgive us for the irreverent suggestion !—that el. Moe guard and Napnleen 111. saw the joke them selves, but were afraid, from an experience of the English Foreign Office, that the English Foreign Office might not see it. They were naturally anxious cn account of Lord Russell's poor head. Politeness would render it impossible for them to assume in their diplomatic correspondence that the Queen's Ministers might again be taken in. Accordingly M. Mocquard sacrificed himself to the demon of Parisian persiflage in order to save Lord Russell from falling victim to another hoax. if this is the real explanation, it says a great deal for M. Mocquard's delicacy. We are afraid that the other solution of the difficulty will, however, be more generally received, and that the Imperial secretary is destined to run the gauntlet of the wits of France. He will be famous for all time for having composed a political comedy on the subject of Abelx el-Kader,—for having introduced camels on to the French stage from the Jardin des Plantes, and for having mistaken the Owl for a newspaper of high political gravity. The Owl, after this, like the jester of King Louis, may abdicate and retire in peace, for the cap and bells belong elsewhere. M. Mocquard has vindicated his right to pass as the greater owl of the two. M. Mocquard's blunder lets us into a secret, and draws up for one moment the curtain that hangs over the Emperor's private cabi net. This gentleman is the author of a consider able portion of his Imperial Majesty's correspon dence. We now know what NI. Mecquard thinks an Imperial letter at this crisis might be like. He has the making of them, and he ought to know ; and here we have what he acknowledges to be an ingenious and deceptive imitation. A genuine let ter should show, we may infer, a frank disregard of diplomatic etiquette. It should call attention to the fact that Napoleon 111. is not merely the most pacific, but the wisest and most dignified of princes. He alone is right and consistent in his policy; and through him France holds the arbitra ment of peace or war in the hollow of her hand. There is nothing the Emperor more thoroughly enjoys than patronising the English people. There is nothing he finds harder to accomplish than the maintaining his temper at the sight cf English foreign policy. If the Owl has not hit the exact truth, it has gone uncommonly near it. What alarms M. l'elocquard is, that his master's sentiments are proximately conveyed, and it did not easily occur to him that the Emperor's real opinions could have been inserted in an English comic periodical at a venture. If the Emperor never wrote what the Owl humorously put into his mouth, we may surmise, without risk of error, that he thinks and long has thought it. This is the only palliation for M. Mocquard's obtuseness to a joke. The joke in question was only a serious truth, expressed with an improbable absence of formality and etiquette. THE " EXAMINER" ON THE DANISH QUESTION. —We do not know whether the Danish quarrel may be considered as at an end. The Conference certainly has come to no set or formal conclusion, except so far as to consider the treaty of 1852 as no more. It has adjourned for ten days, till the 28th. But this proceeded not from disagreement, but on the contrary from a general though tacit undeestanding that a compromise was necessary, and was rendered imperative, not only by the posi tion of the contending parties but by the sentiments of the neutral Powers. Not one of them were pre pared to go the length of war. Such a compromise therefore, as the belligerent Governments, and the equally urgent belligerent populations would con sent to, became inevitable. We have before declared our disposition to see Holstein given to the Ger mans and Schleswig secured to the Danes. It seems, however, that the attempt to wrest the southern district of Schleswig from Holstein would lead to disturbance and re sistance, and would require the prolonged sojourn of armies upon the Eider. The Conference, there fore, or its members leave, it is said, tacitly decided that a dividing line must be drawn north of the Eider. When and how that dividing line is to be drawn, remains an unsolved problem, and a pro blem, as we shall see, not very easy of adjustment. 1 We had hoped better than this for the Danes. But on the whole, if they lose but half a million of dis affected fellow-subjects, and cut off all pretext for any future interference on the part of the Germans, the Danes may congratulate themselves on being released with increased honour and scarcely dimi nished profits from an unequal contest. The Ger mans will have achieved, if they do take a southern bit of Slesvig, the conquest of both banks and the dominant approaches to Kiel harbour. They will have got, in short, the moon they have been crying for. The next thing will be to go to a cooper's and order tubs enough to float the Fatherland that is presently going to be a great maritime people. The toy shops, it is said, are already preparing tenders fcr the German fleet of the Future, and a condi tional order for ship: has already arrived at the Noah's Ark in Holborn. It was not easy, however, to arrive at a hope of this conclusion, and during the first sitting of the Conference the general im,. pression was one of despair. When tiee German Powers der,ounced the Treaty of 1852, and when Russia and Denmark held it tenaciously, Fraoce remained silent. The English plenipotentiaries were at a loss what to do. The German Powers went even so far as to demand that their Diet be consie dered the fitting tribunal to decide the claim of succession. If the Treaty of 1852 were set aside, the German Powers might indeed pretend that the Diet had claims to decide respecting Holstein. But what had it to do with Slesvig ? If the dis pute was to be one of law and legal nicety, the r e was no issue but an appeal to force. A compromise suggested itself to all, And as that compromise is in favour of the Germans, the Danes certainly have shown praiseworthy for bearance in hearkening to it, and perhaps finally accepting it. The supposed firmness of the Dates was not, indeed, the only stumbling block. What was chiefly fee tad was the criminal obstinacy of von Bismark, who had conceived the idea of signalising his administration by keeping Slesvig and Holstein for Prussia. Such monstrous pretensions were in deed impossible of realisation—if anything monstrous is now impossible of realisation on the Continent of Europe--since they would unite all Europe against them, if anything now can unite European Powers against rapine that does not immediately claim a pound or two of their own flesh. But still feeble opponents of his robbery might have suggested to the cunning and unscrupulous Prussian Prime Mini ster the means and the expediency of adjourning the decision of the Congress, and finally defeating its aim in order to prolong the military occupation of the duchies. This game, however, appeared too dangerous and barefaced to King William, who, it is said, incredible as it may seem, found it necessary to come round and abandon his own claim, lest Bis mark's folly should place Prussia at the ban of Europe, and produce a general coalition against her. Were Prussia wise Ehe would limit her efforts for the present to commercial extension. She can do more by her Zollverein than ever she will be allowed to do by armies. Liberal commercial legislation, joined with liberal political administration, would make Prussia a great country. Military aggression in the present state of Europe will not profit her. There is indeed one important point of view is which this Slesvig and Holstein question has not been considered. It is the commercial. England receives half a million's worth of cattle from that region, besides corn and all kinds of provi sions, for which our manufactures go in exchange. Up to 1848 the tariffs of Denmark and the Duchies were different. In 1851 the one tariff was established, by which the rate of import duty into the Duchies was increased. We shall now see this undone; and probably Holstein will to sooner or later join the Zollve rein. she so after the acceptance and ratification of the German- French Treaty of Commerce, there would be a dimi nution of tariff of well nigh 25 per cent. There are difficulties, to be sure, in the way of Holstein joining the German union, as long as Hamburg, Lubeck. Lauenburg, and the Mecklenburgs remain out of it. But, nation of shopkeepers as we are, these things do not enter into the public head. No journal has touched upon the subject, and it has been treated disinterestedly and as a simple question of public right and justice, without an allusion to figures, to the advantage or to the balance of trade. If Ger mans would but consider these facts, they would abandon the charges which they make against us of narrowness and selfishness. The fact is, the English are a very earnest and right-seeking people, ready at every just opportunity to Ring material interests to the wind. Not only material interests, but personal predilections, yield here to the sense of right, as has been seen in two great foreign quarrels by the small influence of our natural pre dilections for the Germans in Europe or the men of the North, with whom our natural sympathies are strongest, in America. • THE JAW-BONE OF AN Ass has done more de. struction in this ecuntry than it ever did in the hands of Samon.—.4l./nerican paper. The thunderstorm of Friday, which appears to have been pretty general all over the country, visited the coasts of Northumberland and Durham with unprecedented vio lence, and during several hours of the busiest portion of the day c'ansed considerable alarm in the principal towns of the district. It broke over Berwick a little after midnight, and continued with brief intervals until 3 o'clock in the after noon. The storm burst over the towns on the Tyne later, about 9 o'clock in !the forenoon, with vivid flashes of lightning and rolling thunder, accompanied by a deluge , of rain ; the lightning doing a very considerable amount of injury in that district between 9 and 10 o'clock. About the time mentioned a labourer, who had been employed draining in a field at Prospect-hill, near North Shields, was making his way along the waggon way there to obtain shelter in the engine-house, when he was struck by the lightning and killed upon the spot. There were several persons near him at the time, but none of them. were hurt. The unfortunate deceased, whose name is; Oswald Gibson, had been struck above the right ear, the lightning having passed down his left side and leg, which were completely stripped. His clothes were torn, and pieces of them were scattered about the spot where the deceased fell. About the same time that this accident occurred a farm labourer named Foster, belonging to Fife-street, Mount Pleasant, Gateshead, was employed rolling a field belonging to a small farmer named Elder, near to Wreck ington. He had loosed his horses when the storm came on, and was returning to the village of Wreckington with his horses yoked to a cart, about 10 o'clock in the forenoon, when he was struck by lightning, and killed instantly. One of the horses was also killed, and the other much injured. Dense masses of black clouds continued to pass over North umberland and Durham until 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the lightning at times being very vivid. Several houses were injured in Newcastle and Shields by the lightning striking them. Several persons had narrow escapes in these towns, but none were seriously hurt. About 4 minutes before 1 o'clock, while a thunderstorm was passing over North Shields, the time gun, with which a fusee had been con nected in anticipation of the time baing sent down from Greenwich at 1 o'clock, was fired by the lightning. A tele graph post on the highway side at Howden was shattered to fragments, and at the same place the lightning struck one of the wires and travelled into the River Tyne Commissien ers' office, smashing an iron box. At South Stockton the lightning lifted the roof of a house, and a widow woman named 'Walters, aged 75, was so shaken that she was n ot expected to recover. So severe a thunderstorm has not been experienced on the north-eastern coast during many years. The rain which accompanied the thunder and lightning have had a wonderfully reviving effect upon the crops,jwhich now look remarkably fresh and green. In the North Riding the extraordinary heat of the last 7 days culminated on Friday afternoon in one of the most terrific storms ever experienced. About noon dense masses of black cumuli gathered in the south-west, and gradually overspread the heavens until all was so dark that gas had to be resorted to for some hours, About 3 o'clock, the storm broke out, its greatest fury being spent on the north side of the great vale of Pickering, taking the lines of the towns of Helmsley, Kirby, Sinnington, Pickerington, &c. Th e lightning and the thunder were simultaneous, and several persons speak to having seen ball lightning, end also to having seen the forked lightning pass horizontally al ong the sky from one cumulus to another. The track of the storm was to the north-east, and for some hours along the course indicated the clouds poured down a very deluge' The roads and fields were at once flooded, and the stream s from the various moor-vallies rose with unexampled re' pidity into raging torrents, carrying down trees and rock s along with them. Kirkdale-bridge, a wooden structure , fairly bent with the pressure against it, and a gentlemen had there a very narrow escape for his life. Between Gill' amoor and Kirby, Mr. Jackson, a well-known cattle dealer , was driving, and it is believed was disabled by the ligh r t . ' ning. His horse ran away and upset the conveyance, ' Jackson being powerless. He died in a few hours. In i gb same locality several cheep were killed under a tree. stones as large as nuts fell for some time, and at Sproaton, near Helmsley, and at Allerston, near Pickering, the de" struction of glass is reported very great. On Saturdef morning the rivers Rye and Derwent, which the previo o afternoon were lower than for many years, were found have filled to the top with floodwater, and in places about, Kirby Mills, Marton, Sinnington, and Howe, the roads el l submerged. The hail and rain have done great damag e to crops. Fruit end even the leaves are cut off the trees, 0'0" are washed up, and gr ass lands are covered with mud in so me t° places. Early potatoes are cut down. The Wolds seeraed.ll attract the southern portion of the storm, but the ra in that le there did not do any damage, but much good. Singularly, enough some parts of the Howardian range did not ge,t drop of rain, although the valleys on eithe r s ide were bilis deluged. On Saturday night the livers wer e still rite i. , but it W 29 thought they would not overflow to any es• It is stated in the Scotsman of Sa t u rda y that in Eellis burgh rain began to fall heavily in the c it y , and continue : almost without intermission up till an advanced hour in th evening. Distant peals of thunder were heard at intervele during the day, and occasional flashes of lightning wer e seen—but the storm seems to have raged more furiously the direction of Selkirk and Peebles. Our correspondent t' the former place writes :—" A thunderstorm of consid er : able violence passel over this town yesterday. °lf; peals were heard during the forenoon, and about res4'' there was a strange and sudden change in the wind, ',chit6c f for a time blew in violent and fitful gusts from all P eill , the compass. A heavy thunder-cloud approached 1.11)13 south, south, and about a dozen peals were heard as it p assed ves the town. Rain, mixed with large hailstones, fell in rents during the height of the storm. The wind after` el,,_, settled in the west, and rain fell in moderate and refresh' ing showers during the afternoon." From Peebles we lea that that town was yesterday visited by a thunderstt; more violent than any that has yet been experi enced la district for many years back. It set in about 11 o'clock ;a continued almost unceasingly for about two hours, en d os heard at intervals during the after part of the dal. heavy rain which fell flooded the streets. At Kelso, e f i rd o the storm was experienced, thunder having been !l e t during the greater part of the day, accompanied In afternoon by a copious fall of rain. COUNTRY BIARKETB. YORK- .I.ATURDAY. - - ---- - There was was only a moderate: supply of wheat a t tot for to-day, with a limited attendance. Sellers he ld nu, 0,0 late rates, but they were with difficulty made. Barle,scitif scarce, with a slow business. Oats also scarce, and , c ,eo an inactive demand. Beans in fair demand, and r rates fully made. 4 , 5 51 Wheat, red,...„ ... _1 • 378 to 39s Oats.... .......•3 3s J' to 50 , White do .40s to 44s Beans 33s ,A Barley .26s to 30s f Peas ..... .s to ~„,-, .... , i Malt, 5Ss to 60s per qr. ; rye, 23s per qr ; do ll ' , to 29s per sack. GRANTHAM—ATURDAY. 30' ; Old white: wheat,:42s to 44s ; S red, 37s to 405 Per,,,Leel, new white, 42sito 448 ; red, 38 s to 40 s. Malting, w.. 33 t 3 33s to 36s per qr ; grinding, 28s to 30s ; oats, 265; new, 20s to24s; beans, 34 s to 36 5; p eas, 34s to 0 LEICE ST ER— vo°' h' We have again to report another weekSITURDAY of . ig 13 „., a r geti able weather. There was a lair show o f wheat at ';jaeit to-day; prices same as last week, with a limited b° er —New white wheat, 42s to 45s ; red, 383 to 415 i l i iticgo stone. Old red, 38s to 42s per 36 stone. Barley; I ,Pd new, 33s to 36s per qr.; grinding, 28s to 30e; ° - 1 300 28s to 30s; new oats, 21s to 24s per 24 stone. n old, 40s to 42s per 38 stone ; flour, 26s to 31s per 2 , - 5 NORWICH--SATURDAY. A oriel There was a liberal supply of wheat to-daphnelosor were the same as on this day se'nnight. J:- - „ t fo rsoe ruled dull. Beans, barley, peas, and oats ive r ' 3 - rates, with a slow trade, 40 White wheat. 42s to 44s f Red wheat ........ 388 t° 3 3 rVI tO g; Malting barley ...35s to 36s I Chevalier barley....'ltoP Distilling29s to 30s I Oats.. ............ 24- Flour, 25s Od to 26s Od per t sack from the miller NOTTINGHAM —SATU RDAY. „ t or g A somewhat limited sh ow of wheat to-day, with a supported . y and W l ' or . r s a h t o e w d demand, abnadr,le barley wad lateprices exceedinglyw e r s e m n a e l a l , r 1 was transacted at about the rates of last week. 05 0 r iceo' disposed of slowly. Beans active, at sully fornier P 39te —White wheat, from 37s to 40s ; red wheat, 369 t° t9. 3 , t q ' ' Barley—malting, 30s to 37s ; grinding, 278 to 2 90 ,', 1 t old, at 24s to 30s Od; new, 19s to 25, Beans ti c " 6 to 428:per qr, ; new, 359 to 375. DUBLI3c- The attendance to-day was cl. articles, and unaltered in price, s• 0 Wheat, white 24 d O . to 26 (l a 0atmea1...... f 4. cl o ' to 1 „ 3 0 D0., D0 new red 10 0 " ° 21 6to 21 0 Beans.. ..... —7 oto', 0 oto 0 Bere ......... —7 oto 7, 0 0 Barley Oats Do., black — 0 to"— 0 Indian corn •• 2 ' Births. fi pt, i ll ' JONES.—On the 18th inst., at Cranmer Hall, •LN ° ' wife of Sir Willoughby Jones, Bart., of a soll• clus tia l ' PELLY.—On the 21st inst., at Gastons , the Wife Cu 'FRIDAY. thin. A slow trade Or Yelly, Esq., of a son. Marriages. 00' 1 4 , t he ~ •,er GEORGAL.A.—IoNIDEs. — On the 21st inst., 0 ,,,' ",., I ,l ' 0 Church, London-wall, Spiridion George - 0 " 1. : ( 1" pool, to Maria, eldest daughter of L. C. lollidt°' , oll l '' 51, Invern WAßD.— ess-terrace. '' All WILLs—HAOn the 19th inst., a' Al- Cul ~ na Langha-plate, Cuthbert, Wills, Esq., of 11.;,. 1 , 1 to I.titia Mary, only daughter of Edwillith" I'' 28, liarley-street, CciveudiSh-square, Deaths. ~ c es C''' BEAcll—On the 19th inst., at Oakley Hallo I N i li f. , line, infant daughter of W. W. Beach, BA" ' . 9 11- ' l ' BENYON—On the 19th inst., at Stetchworth-ra,rm 100 Newmarket, aged 64, deeply regretted bY all '4' f 11 tli p him, Samuel Yate Benyon, Esq. his fit' Bisucir —On the 20th inst., deeply reg r et ted 1 .. 1, oe , v ' and friends, Mr. James Bishop, of Lil7l)°t. CV E ged 63. Cottsg e ' DOLLMAN—On the 20th inst., at Prestbury tenhani, John Dollman, Ei,q., aged 82. Louden: Print•A an d Prblished by WILLIA-,i .-,: 0 , SO', il of O. 112, Strand , Pr inter, at TOE f.ioN 01.0 e "0047 Strand, in the P re cinct of the 3avo7, Lt th Mitol"ex —3londaY, May 23, 1881. ay...